When will police forces learn that shooting someone simply for not doing what you're told is unacceptable. Police should have much more training dealing with people with mental issues and drug addiction. I watched the video of Forcillo shooting that poor kid and I agree the officer feared for his life but why? Was he seeing Sammy as a deranged killer or as a kid who was having a severe episode?If they had have talked to him for a while longer they should have been able to get him the help he needed. Instead I believe Forcillo acted under the influence of crowd and worked to de-escalate the situation too quickly. It would have been a much different video had they talked Sammy into peacefully surrendering and telling him that he will get the help he needs.It's sad that one of the last things he'd asked for was to talk to his Dad. Such a tragedy.

this verdict should not have found Forcillo guilty...for one thing ..and officer is to protect our citizens...as he was doing...my husband was a Toronto Police Officer for 35 years...and this is disquieting to know that one of our own has been charged with this...its' pure nonsense..it will eventually be that when a person is in harmsway...the police just may look the other way..for fear of being not only ridiculed/embarassed/placed in jeoprady of his job/and even worse arrested and found guilty...and you the citizens are responsible...for this judgement...i would like to think that our police men out there are looking after me...protecting me...people yell predjudice and i am sick of that card...always being played...well if i were a cop and this Sammy person came at me with a knife and was on drugs..i'd shoot him as well...the officer did the right thing...shame on you TORONTO...i hope you are satisfied...and God bless you officer Forcillo

I am concerned that due to the "roles" assigned police officers, rules which might apply to "normal people" no longer apply to them. Nurses are under strict regulations regarding their role vis a vis patients. If I asked the officer, had his son been wielding a knife, and a colleague of his had shot his son that many times in similar circumstances, would the argument of "perception" have held ground? As a nurse, I must check in with my "team" when my perception is so skewered. The loss of a life, even by police can never be justified in any court. Police officers need more support in processing what they see in the dark underbelly of human filth and decadence. Therein lies the problem, processing what they experience every day, on the job.

So if someone shoots another person and that person dies and the individual that shot the one who was killed didn't really mean to kill them - precedence set - they may face at least an attempted murder charge - that's crazy absolutely crazy. Someone was killed!!, and it doesn't take 9 bullets to calm them down.

Notwithstanding a cops hard job, this was a ridiculous use of force and deserves major punishment, even if it might have been " suicide by cop" scenario, these cops need to be weeded out and removed from having a weapon

Better than Not Guilty, over all. I agreed with a Senior UK Police commentator that a boy on ecstasy with a fold up pocket knife could have been contained and there would not have been these "overkill" consequences.

I seem to recall a story about a person killing a person and cutting off his head on a greyhound bus....seems the RCMP could get him under control without shooting him. i hear he is medicated, not a danger to anyone and is still alive. so tell me again how a kid, stoned on the love drug, with a pocket knive could incite such fear in this officer that he had to shoot him to death, while his partner had just put her gun away?

Hi didn't do his job well that day, he didn't perform well under pressure, so their is an argument that he should not continue to be a police officer, but going to prison for years is not a reasonable circumstance for making a mistake on the job.

If you listen to the audio, just prior to the shooting, someone requests an officer with a taser, this tragedy did not have to happen. Officer Forcillo was not in danger, and lethal force was not the answer.

How can you be found guilty of "attempted murder" on someone who was already dead? I am in full support of proper policing but considering the amount of issues these days on video I don't understand why a simple taser wouldn't have worked but they definitely didn't need 9 bullets. So while our government debates strategies for assisted suicide maybe they could include "death by cop" in that discussion. Even with all the video evidence we still see how blind justice can be...

The officer has shown he should never been given a gun in the first place. He completely bypassed normal police protocol. He spent a whole 50 seconds on the scene before he had shot the youth dead. 50 seconds! Never did he attempt to de-escalate the situation... as a matter of fact he did the opposite by using profane language. I really don't care if he does jail time or not; as long as he never carries a gun again.

They had all the time in the world to get a psychologist there, someone that could have talked to him like a human being ... anytime you start screaming at someone, you just escalate the situation .. or at the very least, they should have thrown him a phone so he could call his father!

I'd like to hear from some of those on the defense side of the bar. Clearly Mr.Brauti felt that he was not given a chance to present a valid counter argument to the Crown's case. In recent media (after the jury was sequestered)Yatim's state of mind seems to imply that it would be a factor had the jury heard it. Is it possible the Judge erred in his instructions to the jury stating that Yatim's state of mind had no relevance?? I see no end to this and the likely call for an inquiry will yield the same results as previous inquiries never mind the appeal process.

I believe that officer is right in this case, He acted against offender of law, If officer was asking him to surrender and why he was not doing so, Officer was having two choices in this case, 1st he should wait foroffender to attack civilian or himself Or he should overpower him, there was risk to officer,s life and public, Law should be amended to the extent to minimize weapons. Police officer must have right to shoot if someone not obey order to surrender in public safety. I don't know why civilian needs weapons.

What baffles my mind, is a few years back, out west there was a similar incident on a bus, where a man went crazy and literally cut off the young man's head in the seat in front of him. Somehow the officers at this scene managed to get this man off the bus without taking his life too. Yet Officer Forcillo decided in less than a minute that the only way to deal with this young man, who was obviously in crisis, was to shot him 9 times. Sammy never moved pass the point that he was originally standing, he never charged at the officers, he was a scared kid, and unfortunately paid with his life. Forcillo did not handle the situation correctly, he never attempted to de-esculate, he just used lethal force on a person who was obviously in some kind of crisis. If this is how police officers are trained, we should all be scared. The police are suppose to be here to serve and protect citizens, I feel neither were accomplish that fateful night in July 2013.

Forcillo acted quickly, made a bad judgement call and continued down that path with reckless disregard. Nobody was in danger. Taser's could have been used or riot shields like in other countries to take him down. A very sad case all round but this officer should be found guilty and police forces should be put on notice that the way they deal with people with mental health issues and deescalation is severely lacking.

This verdict implies Focillo decided to murder Yatim after he fired the first 3 shots. How do one justify that reasoning?

The "fear for his life argument" is crap, because it tries to suggest to the audience that automatically there was a "fear" in the equation. It has been misused in all the police killing cases throughout North America. When the driver got scared off the street car, did he fear for his life? Compare that to the mental state of a trained and armed police officer standing 10-12 fts away.

Hi, scottydavidson. I haven't removed any comments that I've approved in this blog. If you're referring to the comments section under a story, you can contact audience relations. Thanks for taking part in the discussion.

Why are our comments moderated for hours only to be flagged and removed? Does the hours of moderation not remove the need for the flag button? This matters to this Canadian.scottydavidsonat 8:40 PM

I certainly agree this officer acted totally inappropriately and the verdict is just. My question is, given this police office is now a convicted felon, why is he suspended WITH PAY. I cannot fathom why he continues to get paid??

I am tremendously disappointed at the guilty verdict for attempted murder.I thought common sense would prevail and the officer would be cleared of all charges. The only one I blame for that night is Yatim himself. He was brandishing a knife, he was exposing himself, and he was ordered to put the knife down. He didnt and he brought on the outcome himself. Was he mentally ill? Dont care, as safety of the public is the only concern. Canada is going to be a laughing stock around the world. Only in Canada can someone threaten the public with a weapon, expose himself, have the police neutralize the criminal, but then the criminal is considered the victim and our police officers who are there to protect the public is arrested and charged with murder. Very Sad.

We sign people up to go to battle on the streets and other countries and then we wash our hands of them eventually acting badly when we trained them and asked them to make judgements about killing humans in the first place.

If you come across a young individual who is clearly not in his right mind a the moment, police officers need to be a lot more patient. 50 seconds and your dead? That is not right at all... there is always time for a calm down period as long as that may take to avoid loss of life.

The minimum penalty for attempted murder when a gun is used is four years. Forcillo's lawyer has said he'll bring a constitutional challenge to the mandatory minimum sentence. The maximum sentence is life.

Police training apparently makes no distinction between weapons which are lethal at a distance such as guns arrows and bombs versus those that aren't such as sticks staplers and knives. I have training in hand to hand combat and 10 ft is a big separation. There is lots of time to react if the attacker tries to close that distance. Forcillo wasn't cornered. There's no justification to shoot if the attacker can't kill you at a distance and there is a significant separation. Forcillos feeling that his life was in danger doesn't hold water.

it's long past time where members of the police force have the same duty as all citizens under the law to explain their actions, and stop hiding behind an obsolete and discriminatory status as the untouchables.

I think that Yatim was a lesser danger to people on the scene than was Forcillo firing indiscriminately into a streetcar on a crowded urban street. There were people across the street that might just as easily have been hit by an errant bullet. Fortunately that didn't happen but Forcillo sure was not protecting the public that night.

Unbelievable..in my opinion there is no justification, or excuse for this deplorable action by a police officer. There is no doubt in my mind that this young man would be alive today if FORCILLO was not a member of our Police Force. As a mother, my heart aches for Mr. Yatim's mother. Justice was Not served.

Open season on the police these days it seems. I sure hope none of these jury members ever need a cop to save them in a life threatening situation in the future - because cops are starting to think twice about protecting the public in many major N American cities fron violent offenders - and who can blame them?

From personal experience, Toronto police officers are well meaning, honest persons, who do a very dangerous job under some times extremely challenging circumstances.However, I have these questions about police officers:1) Are they properly trained to deal with different circumstances that arise?2) Are all officers always physically fit to deal with their duties effectively?3) Are they always mentally and emotionally ready to confront the situations they deal with?4) Does anyone verify the fitness for duty of an individual police officer on an ongoing basis?5) And if they are found not fit are they taken off active duty?

Blaming the officer for his actions is just as ridiculous as blaming Mr.Yatim for being mentally ill. This entire situation is a tragedy for all. The real culprit and blame lies in the failure for family, the state, and society for helping those with mental illness. This is applies failure to the police for not training officers enough to recognize and react appropriately. My heart goes out to all .

What if one of your family members had diabetes and went into insulin shock. And they were killed by a cop for not complying..... Because they didn't stop what they were doing that second? I thought police had better training and tools for dealing with people brandishing this type of hardware. Is it the lack of bravery? Because if they called me to come down and take that skinny kids knife away. It would not be a problem. I would be like " here, hold my beer", and have it done in minutes and they could take the subject into custody safely. Anyways seems like Canadian police get off of everything. And you cannot tell me they are all perfect 100% of the time.

This does not make sense to me. Although it is unfortunate that Sammy Yatim had to die, his actions largely led to this situation. Mental illness or not, if one brandishes a weapon in public and indicates that they may use it than they can expect full retaliation from the law. Canada is not the United States, where unarmed shootings of minorities by law enforcement happens on a regular basis and more often than not goes unpunished. The fact that this case would go to court shows the extent to which Canadian society is tolerant, as this case would not have even gone to trial if it had taken place in the majority of other countries in the world(a few countries in Western europe may be the exception). Although far from ideal, Canada still treats people with mental illnesses better than most countries in the world, and our desire to be politically correct and include everyone should not come at the expense of public safety or the reputation of our police officers.

I'm glad they found him guilty of something. Police officers rarely have to pay for their crimes. I'm tired of police officers who are the fittest people in society, who carry guns and are always afraid for their lives, afraid if knives and staplers.

My major concern is the Police response, what people saw in the video shows an Officer not taking any remedial actions to diffuse the situation. We see a demand, then the officer emptying his weapon into the victim. My question to Toronto police and others, who disagree with this verdict.. If Police are seen to shoot first and ask questions later, and not held to account, do you really think criminals wouldn't respond in the same manner? Trsut me, this verdict has saved Police officer lives, because if found innocent, every criminal would fear the same treatment and THEY would shoot first.

That's all the time we have. Thanks so much for all your comments. We received so many that there are more than 40 I didn't even get a chance to read. Watch for our next CBC Forum tomorrow. We appreciate your insight and passion.